Cruxicheiros
From Latin crux ('cross') + Greek cheir ('hand'), meaning 'cross hand', in reference to the Cross Hands Quarry in Warwickshire, England where the fossils were discovered.
Middle Jurassic stages
Cruxicheiros is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived in the Middle Jurassic of England. The type species is C. newmanorum, described by Roger Benson and Jonathan Radley in 2010.
Diagnosis
- Proximomedially inclined ridge within the trochanteric fossa of the femur, running nearly parallel to the posterior flange of the femoral caput; absent in all other known basal theropods.
- Prominent posterior flange of the femoral caput extending further posteriorly than the posterior surface of the femoral head.
- Dorsal neural spines with relatively low dorsoventral height (approximately equal in length to transverse processes) combined with prominent rugose ridges and transversely expanded dorsal ends.
- Vertebrae with more numerous, smaller internal pneumatic chambers (not the two large chambers divided by a midline septum typical of megalosauroids).
- Fused and swollen scapulocoracoid suture.
Species
Cruxicheiros newmanorum Benson & Radley, 2010
Type species
Named for the Newman family, who own the Cross Hands Quarry in Warwickshire where the holotype was discovered.
- Holotype
- WARMS G15770 , Warwickshire Museum
- Material
- Partial right femur.
- Horizon
- Chipping Norton Limestone Formation, Bathonian, Middle Jurassic , 168.2–165.3 million years ago
- Locality
- Cross Hands Quarry, Little Compton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
References
- Benson, R. B. J.; Radley, J. D. (2010). A New Large-Bodied Theropod Dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Warwickshire, United Kingdom. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 55(1): 35-42. Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Paleobiologii (Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences). doi:10.4202/app.2009.0083 benson2010a